“Awake sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light"

Ephesians 5:14

God’s light, being the path of righteousness, is the pattern of moving from the east, being the process of moving away from the spiritual deadness of the ways of man, which begins with “the sunrise” of Jesus saying, “Awake sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light" (Ephesians 5:14) (for does one not arise from the sleep in the morning?), and which culminates in entering the Promised Land in the west. For when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan river and entered into the Promised Land, it was “from the east” in the land of Moab “towards the west” that they travelled. Being the trajectory of the sun that is “a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path” of following God towards their destiny.

In the same way, entrance into the sacred tabernacle which God commanded the Israelites to build, was through the eastern gate, following a steadfast progression towards the west where the Lord dwelt in the Holy of Holies. Which is also why only the “western wall” of the second temple of David remains standing in Jerusalem today. For it serves to remind man that whilst man’s ways shall not endure (the ways of the east of the world), the ways of God will always remain. Thus, the west speaks of going toward God.

Which is the holy pattern of redemption of “from glory to glory.” “And we all having been unveiled in face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Which is the pattern that first starts as a glimmer of a sunrise in the east, and then moves forever steadily unto the fullness of day (Proverbs 4:18). So that in the final analysis, when all is said and done, since God is both the beginning and the end, and the alpha and the omega, God shall always have the final say. Which is with the majestic spectacle of the fullness of the glory of God as a sunset of pure gold in the west.

And just as we follow the sun from east to west, we are to follow the Son from the glory of the east of our dawning to the glory of the west of our regeneration. “And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me in the regeneration” (Matthew 19:28). The first gleam of dawn is the light of salvation breaking the horizon of the darkness of fallen man (30-fold seed). The fullness of day is when that seed produces the fullness of glory (full light of day) which is the glory of the regenerated sons of God (100-fold seed).

And is Jesus not the cornerstone of wisdom upon which His whole house is built? For does Proverbs 24:3 not say, “By wisdom a house is built”? And is it not wise to build our house on the Rock (the cornerstone)? “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens (REGENERATED), and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” (Daniel 12:3).

For is Jesus not the seed of righteousness? And shall that seed not produce fruit after its own likeness? For is Jesus not the tree of life by which our souls have been won? “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that wins souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:3).